First thing after today’s realization that I had forgotten to dimple before priming, I rushed home and grabbed the tank dies to prime the #40 holes.
Let's get ready to dimple...
No problem to dimple after priming. (There was a little bit of twist after dimpling, but no big deal, the rivets will hold this thing together.)
Slight twisting after dimpling.
The only way you can tell I dimpled after priming is that the dreaded dimple circle is visible, because the outer edge of the dies mars, (maybe polishes?) the primer a little. You can see it in the pictures.
Dimpling after priming worked fine. See the circle marks?
Here’s the other side.
Looks good to me.
After I finished both, here they are on the table. Crisis averted. (Not really, I would have just re-primed them.)
These will do.
Then, inside to grill some dinner, then back out to do more edge finishing, cleaning, and priming. I grabbed R-606PP and R-607PP (lower and middle spar reinforcements) along with R-617 (shim) and finished the edges with the scotchbrite wheel. Once complete. I took them inside, cleaned them with dawn detergent, and brought them back out to dry and prime. Here’s a priming shot.
From left to right: R-606PP, R-607PP, and R-617.
Next, I looked around and grabbed the R-912 counterbalance rib and did some edge finishing and dimpling. Here’s a dimpling shot.
Dimples!
Same deal with with the R-903 tip rib and the R-710 horn brace. Here’s the horn brace.
More dimples.
After the primer dried on the three pieces I primed tonight, I put them back on the table and examined my progress. Still a long way to go.
A shot of the "table of small rudder parts."
Enough work outside for the night. I grabbed the soldering gun, my wooden straightedge, and the R-913 counterbalance skin and headed inside to devinyl.
Pretty, but maybe overkill.
I decided to leave some of the vinyl on here to save on primer on the inside and protect the finish on the outside. I think the amount of primer weight I am going to save by masking with the vinyl is minuscule compared to the parts I will inevitably need to re-prime. But, if I pulled off all the vinyl, and primed the entire interior surface, I would always know I was carrying around more primer than I needed to be. (It’s all about figuring out what you can sleep with at night.) While I am sure I will add more than plenty of unnecessary weight in other areas (all of the nutplates I am going to add), not doing this would make me feel lazy.
R-913 Counterbalance skin interior.
Next, I grabbed the R-901-R (right rudder skin)0 and pulled it inside to devinyl. Notice on the left that I made the cuts on the trailing edge (rudder is upside down in this picture) but haven’t pulled off the vinyl? I am going to leave the vinyl on while I prime the rest of the bare metal areas, then remove the trailing edge vinyl. This area doesn’t need to be primed, as it will get scuffed up with a scotchbrite before using Pro-seal to glue the two skin trailing edges and trailing edge wedge together.
Look at me, I've thought ahead!
Another shot of the right rudder skin, this time right-side-up. (Also, my fancy-pants wooden straight edge and a glass of 7 Deadly Zins Zinfandel.)
Next, I flipped that bad boy over and did the exterior. Here’s a shot before I’ve pulled some of the vinyl off.
I probably should have pulled more of the vinyl off of the leading edge, but it was just two more lines, and now I have a little protection on the leading edge while I am rolling and assembling.
Repeat for the left skin, and then I took both back outside and stored the left skin on the top shelf of my second toolbench.
I'm embarrassed that I don't have a one-piece shelf for the top shelf of my workbench. Don't judge me.
And a finished shot of the right skin, back out on the workbench.
I like these devinyled pieces. Can't explain it, but I like them.
I was using the clock in the kitchen to mark my progress, and decided I was going to stop at 9:30pm to head to bead…except (yeah, you know where this is going)…I forgot to reset that clock after the time change. It was actually 10:30pm and I had put in 2.5 hours. Great for airplane progress, bad for my sleep debt. I’m not going to put in any time tomorrow, need to catch up on sleep. See you in a couple days.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 